The Best One Yet - 🐉 “Gate of Thrones” — Fast is gone. Coke’s flavored pixels. JetBlue wants Spirit gates.

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

Fast was supposed to be the next unicorn FinTech startup… now it’s gone. Coke’s latest flavor “tastes like pixels” because Coke is becoming a branded house. And JetBlue bid $3.6B to buy Spirit Airlines because airport gates are the dragon eggs of travel.$KO $SAVE $JBLUGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformID: 2114983Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I have like four ideas, dude. Yeah, I went a little overbore with the emoji. I had so much fun on emoji.com. I feel like I'm your audience. Every day I want to share an emoji with you and I want you to go like, you know what? I don't even know that one existed. It is a very fun little creative challenge for you.

A dragon sticking its tongue out. Well, that's totally different. All right, here we go. Three, two. This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Thursday, the new Friday.

April 7th. Snackers, if you're down south in Miami at the Bitcoin conference, say hi to Ben for us. Yeah, please also ask Ben the Bitcoin if he can do more. We would like him to do more. We'd appreciate that, Ben. But today's spot is the best one yet. This is so good. TBIOI. For our first story, Coca-Cola just launched a ridiculous new flavor of soda. Yeah, Coca-Cola, it's making computer flavored soda. For our second story, Fast. Was the fast growing $600 million startup, making one-click checkout possible across the whole internet. Update on Fast.

Fast is shutting down. It's gone. It's gone. Our third and final story is JetBlue. They've won up Frontier Airlines' offer to acquire Spirit Airlines. Because in the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. The Gate of Thrones. But Snackers, before we hit that wonderful mix.

Just a fantastic mix, Jeff. The numbers are in. The numbers are in. Goldman Sachs was just bragging to CNBC that 236,000, college kids applied for internships just this year. 236,000 college students wrote cover letters with bold opening sentences. In high school, I crushed books. In college, I crushed cans. If accepted to your 2022 summer internship class, I'll crush myself.

For my clients. Anything for my clients. But few prevail. An insider at Goldman told CNBC, the acceptance rate for these internship applications is 1.5%. Jack, how hard is it to get into Goldman Sachs internships? It is four times harder to become a Goldman intern than it is to become a Harvard student. It is harder to get into Goldman's intern program than to get into Goldman's private gym on the 10th floor. That's what we heard. That's what we heard.

But also, Snackers, we just got the intern paycheck numbers too. And we know you want to hear how much investment banking interns get paid this summer. It's the wild thing. Goldman isn't even in the top five highest paying bank intern. Here's who you want as your roommate in the East Village if you're like doing a thing in New York this summer. Okay, number five, J.P. Morgan interns, they're making $6,667 a month. Number four, Black Rock, they're getting paid just about $7,000 a month. Number three, Susquehanna. Their interns are making $7,000 a month.

Reminderer, these are interns. Number two is Deutsche Bank, which is making a tad over $7,000 a month. And number one, whipping up $8,000. 333 bucks a month is the internship program over at Capital One. Capital One? What's in your wallet? Capital One interns are making more money than Samuel L. Jackson. Goldman interns, their next application should be for Capital One. Yeah, they can talk about the adversity they faced not being the top paid interns.

I had to share my sweet green salad with my co-interns. Wouldn't even get the extra salmon. What's in our three stars? You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers. The snacks about to hear rain. food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know, we're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice,

not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, Snackers, two years ago, Jack and I told you how Coca-Cola was killing off half of its brands. Just get rid of them. Now, Coca-Cola is launching a new branded soda that tastes like computer. Snackers, if you have played Fortnite recently, you may have noticed this, like, awkward Coke camp. You're chilling on an island in your basement building forts with your buddies. Must be nice. And you're like, is that thing over there a Coca-Cola? You're like, reaching for it. You're like, what is that over there?

You're not insane. No. Yes. That was a Coca-Cola can put into Fortnite by Coke's innovative new team Coca-Cola creations. Yeah, Coca-Cola creations. They created a flavor in a video game to taste like a video game. It's called Coke Bite, or its full name is Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Bite. And here's the news. This Coke bite with a Y, because, you know, tech, is going from virtual reality to real reality.

This absurd-sounding Coke flavor is going on sale in real life, starting in May. Okay, Jack, can you give us like the flavor profile of this new type of can? It tastes like pixel, according to Coca-Cola. The files are in the computer. This is like drinking an NFT. And at $7.50 and $50, it's the only Coke product priced like a glass of 2002 Chardonnay. It's $750 for a can. And the flavor, what do you think, opinions here?

If I wanted to taste a video game, I'd lick a CD. Yeah, honestly, it sounds like something that the Coke marketing team came up with after drinking way too much Coke. All right. What we find interesting about this story is not that a soda thinks it's an iPad. No. It's the name of this soda. That's what we find fascinating here because two years ago, Coca-Cola went on an org chart rampage. Coca-Cola, the giant global corporation, had around 400 different brands. They were selling beverages under globally. And then basically they said, you know what, we're going to take no prisoners. It is a zombie apocalypse out there. Yes, they track

down what they call zombie brands. Yeah. The brands of Coca-Cola that aren't growing in sales. And Coca-Cola killed those zombie brands. Yeah, like these are the brands you see in the stories and you're like, I don't know if I'm going to get it, so no one buys it. Oddwallis, they're gone. If you have one, it's expired. Yeah, but you know what? It's a collector's item now. Zico Coconut Water, Jack, that's like gone too. They weren't growing, so they're done. They're done. Those were the zombie brands until what's happening right now. Well, today's news looks like a reversal of Coke strategy. They're bringing back drinks, but they're doing it under the Coca-Cola brand. And that

is not something that was expected. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Coca-Cola. Coke is pulling a switch from a house of brands to a branded house. Yeah, Snackers, a house of brands or a branded house. You can only be one of the two if you're a company. Coca-Cola, like PepsiCo, has always been a house of brands. Yeah, they got a whole bunch of brands. They had Fanta, Desani, vitamin water, power rate, and of course, they had Coke, all owned by Coca-Cola. They had Sprite, too. Yeah, they did. But while Coke is killing off 200 of its zombie brands, it's now pivoting to go all in on one brand, the Coke brand. Nick and I checked out Coca-Cola.us.

In the United States alone, there are 22 different varieties of Coca-Cola. We're not talking size. We're talking like flavor. This is like the species of hummingbird in the Amazon. It's wild. Coca-Cola destroyed half of their portfolio of brands and now are doubling down on the one-core brand of Coca-Cola. They're focusing on Coke, and now they got Coke Zero and Cherry Coke and Local Coke

and Coffee Coke and Coca-Cola Creates. That's right. Local Coke. They have a Georgia and a California-flavored Coca-Cola. Oh, wait. And there's 16 more all-named Coke. Coke isn't just launching a bite-flavored Coca-Cola dream. No. They're transforming from a house of brands into a branded house. All in the Coca-Cola brand. For our second story, Fast, it was a high-flying, soon-to-be unicorn, soon to IPO. We were excited to cover it wild, thrilling company.

But as of yesterday, Fast is not. No more. Fast is gone. Snackers, the startup fast, it tried to be the holy grail of e-commerce. Everyone wants to be this. The one-click checkout. One-click checkout to rule them all. One-click purchases on any website, anywhere you're shopping. If you log into fast just one time, then all of your information needed to make an online purchase is there with one click. Yeah, we're talking like your info, your card, your zip, all saved for future purchases, anywhere on the web, even like the stuff that we always forgot. Even the CVV-V-3 or or four-digit code on the back of your credit card.

Oh, you're like, look at this. Like, oh, it's four for an MX. Great. Fantastic. So this makes online shopping just, like, way easier and can plug into any website. No, I'm not a robot. Yes, that's a chimney. Yeah, that's a taxi cat.

There's a mountain. But Fast didn't want to just become like a Chrome browser plugin. They wanted to be a lifestyle. Yeah, Fast, this tech company partnered with NASCAR because, you know, fast. They sold $1 hoodies. ridiculously low price. Which sold out fast. Which is probably worth a lot more now.

And if you work at fast, you're not a faster or like a fasti or like a fast enista. It's a little cooler. You're a fast or not. You're a faster not. Which is about 50 times more interesting than a meta-made. Fast, faster, faster not. And last year, Snackers, because everything Jack and I just said, they raised $120 million as sales they processed tripled every single month in 2021.

They hit a valuation of 600. million dollars, almost a unicorn, and everyone was waiting for the official coronation of a unicorn. We were excited everyone was waiting with Snackers. Jack and I can't tell you about fast unless we tell you a story from 12 years ago. In 2010, an Australian named Dominic Holland decided to punk Australia's biggest airline. Yeah, he bought a similar website domain to Quantis Air and basically redirected people going to that website to Quantis's like rival airline. Right. People went to like Quot. AS thinking it was Quantis and ended up on like Australian Airlines. It's a funny joke that cost an airline millions of dollars.

It was really a punk. Then a few years later, Dominic launched his next gig, which was called Toe.com. Toe.com. The Uber of Toe. Well, Jack, what happened to Toe.com? It went bankrupt. It did. And Dominic decided to move to the U.S. and start with a clean slate.

Yeah, he started with a clean slate by going by Dom instead of Dominic. But he had two M's because, you know, fetch. In 2019, Dom launches Fetch. Fast. Yeah. And he calls himself the world's fastest CEO, which is catching. Basically, the Adam Newman of e-commerce. But then according to NPR, he started doing some pretty eccentric things.

Like, he started driving race cars in a pink blazer, you know, doing a bunch of skydiving. You had that jet ski and said fast on it. Quite a personality. Yeah. Yesterday, though, he announced for his company Fast, not that they were downsizing the workforce. No. Not that they were cutting costs like free office candy. No.

Fast shutting down. Every worker there is sadly without a job now. is a company, Snackers, that was worth $600 million. Investors had dropped in $120 million to fund its growth. And now it's all worth zero. Okay. Here's kind of the shocking thing, too. Fast was expecting like tens of millions of dollars of revenue in just the last year because, you know, all the e-commerce, all your online buying of everything. Instead, they brought in just $600,000 of revenue. I don't know what happened, but... No, but the only thing Fast is probably getting is like an eight-part shmovey about the fall of Fast on Hulu. At least they failed fast. Like, so Jack, what's

What's the takeaway for our buddies over at fast. The Wii Theranos playbook isn't what it used to be. Snackers, here was the formula. Eccentric founder plus Bold Vision equals unlimited venture capital money. WeWork and Theranos excited the venture capitalists. So they got more and more funding even when their businesses were about to go bank. Well, it didn't exactly work for WeWork. Yeah, investors pulled out just before the IP.

And that formula, it didn't work for Theranos either. Investors pulled out when fraud at the company was finally revealed. it stopped working for WeWork. Yes, investors pulled out of the company right before the IPO. And it also stopped working for Theranos. When the Wall Street Journal's reporting revealed fraud going down at the company. It also stopped working for Fast, but way earlier than those other two. In the past couple months, Fast asked venture capitalists for another $500 million

of funding to keep the company going, but they got nothing. They got zero. And part of that is probably because venture capitalists were embarrassed by WeWork and Theranos debacles. that happened over the last few years. Part of it's also probably venture capital tightening their belts during this tough market for tech. Part of it may just be fast, had incredibly bad numbers. That's definitely part of it. Either way, the Wii Theranos playbook isn't what it used to be.

Eccentric founder plus Bold Vision doesn't exactly equal unlimited venture capital money. For our third and final story, Jack, would you like the chicken or would you like the pasta? Vegetarian option? They're actually out of everything. Snackers, JetBlue. has topped Frontier Airlines to buy Spirit or to offer to buy Spirit Airlines. By the time the flight attendant gets to your row, they're always out of the best time. We got the vegetarian option.

Actually, it's only half a portion of that's going to work for you and saying apologies. Snackers, JetBlue Watt Spirit because in the Gate of Thrones, you win or you die. DeNaris is going to love the takeaway here. Snackers, on February 8th, we covered the news on this pod that Frontier Airlines reached a deal to merge with Spirit Airlines. Yeah, we mentioned that both airlines have an expertise in crushing your kneecaps. Spirit and Frontier really do. Yeah, they do. They measure everything in millimeters.

That's a problem. But that merger, not so fast. If you believe these two airlines shouldn't be betrothed, speak now, or forever hold your peace. JetBlue raised their hands. The New York-based airline thinks they should marry Spirit, not Frontier Airlines. Some drama over the FAA. So JetBlue has offered $3.6 billion, so it can get together. with Spirit Airlines and live forever.

And that's more than the $2.9 billion that Frontier offered to get with Spirit. And that's not all. JetBlue, they're offering all cash. And all cash offer. Like the couple that bought the house that you wanted to buy. Like, how did they get that money? Like, where did that come from? Where does like $700,000 just come from?

Not even physically possible. But now Spirit Airlines is evaluating JetBlue's unsolicited offer because Spirit, Frontier wanted them. Now JetBlue really wants them too. So we don't know who Spirit will end up with. Now, here's what fascinates Jack and me about this JetBlue deal. It isn't about profits. It's not about passengers.

It's not about pilots either. This deal is about Gate 37C. Because the discount airlines, they're not as nationwide as you might think they are. Yeah, they don't have a map monopoly. JetBlue, they mostly do business on the coasts. Right. Southwest, they got you covered in the south and in the west. Frontiers based in Colorado, they do the middle of the country. They're basically doing everything right there.

But JetBlue, it wants more flights to Florida. JetBlue just, like, has a cruise. craving for Florida right now. To do more business in Florida, JetBlue needs Spirit Airlines' southern airport gates. Well, Jack, if this deal goes through, what is JetBlue going to find itself with when it's hanging out in the cold winters up in New York City? A bunch of airport gates in Florida than it can fly to. Texas, too. Now, investors, they're like not so sold that this deal is going to go through. They think it actually might get blocked. Yesterday, JetBlue offered $33 a share for each share of Spirit Airlines. But here's the key. Spirit Airlines stock, it's only

hanging out at 26 bucks. It's not all the way up to $33. So Wall Street thinks there's a chance. This deal gets kiboshed by the regulators. What's that? Jack, hey, I found you a chicken. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Jepblo? In the Gate of Thrones, you win or you die. DeNaris, we've been holding this for you. Here is what JetBlue CEO said about this potential deal. I think we have to give Circe a shout out. That's her line. I really don't want to upset Circe. JetBlue's CEO said, if you want to do something, you have a finite period of time to act. Well, that's especially true in the airline industry because the whole industry is a gate of thrones. The gates are a scarce resource. There's only so many airport gates. Yeah. And the number of

gates and airline controls limits its growth potential. Gate seven at Terminal 4 at JFK Airport. It's not just for you to get on a plane. That is valuable real estate. And it's how airlines make money. Gates are scarce because new airports, they're really rare. And expanding an airport. Oh my God. That is tough. It took like 30 years for LaGuardia to get redone. It's a work in progress, but it takes decades. In Game of Thrones, the scarce resource is Dragon X. That determines whether you win or you die. You got to have all three dragon eggs. For airlines, it's airport gates. The gates, they are the dragon eggs. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for the new Friday? We don't know what Coca-Cola bite actually tastes like. No, we know. But we do know Coke is transformed

from a house of brands to a branded house. For a second story, fast. Sadly, no more. Yeah, the We Theranos playbook isn't what he used to be. And JetBlue is going down market to try to buy Spirit Airlines. Yeah, they're pulling a DeNaris. They need those gates. Where are my dragon eggs? It's all about the gates.

Where are my gates? Now, time for a snack fact of the day. This one from fellow podcaster, Ghorov Menon, a Canadian who's living in California. California and Canada are both pretty big. Yeah, two big places. Actually, one is really big. Canada, that big body of water up there? What is that thing?

That Hudson Bay? More like the Hudson Ocean. The Hudson Bay, yeah. Hudson Planet. Well, it turns out Canada is 237 times bigger than California by like square miles. Sorry, square kilometers. I'm glad you apologize. That's actually appropriate for the snack fact.

But there are more people in California than there are in all of Canada. Wow. Yeah. One million more people in California than the entire country of Canada. Snackers, you'll look fantastic today. And if you haven't yet, turn to your buddy who's interning over a Capital One and making a whole bunch of money this summer and ask him, H-Y-H-Y-H-S-D. Have you had your snacks daily? And you can cover this tab.

If you know, you know. And before we go, Snacker Emily Repetto, we missed your dog's birthday. But hey, happy birthday to your poop. Serve that dog some honest kitchen. And Nat, turning 25 over in Chicago. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to Alejandra, turn in 28 in Austin. And Laura Roy, happy birthday in Fremont.

And Stephen Chats, on his way to school. with a lacrosse stick in the back of the SUV from Baltimore. And Chris V. Happy 37th down in Richmond. Happy 32nd to groom Asifa, golfing right now in Scottsdale. Yeah, and Sam Alton back. Happy birthday in Columbus, Ohio. Happy birthday to Mara Kovall in Long Beach. And Hunter Grunstead over in Minneapolis.

And Ildefonzo Vera in San Jose. And Katie Baker, enjoy the new job in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Happy anniversary to Ayush and Pooja, four years listening together in Mountain. And Varsana McRoberts and Tamerlin Nugmanov. Happy two years of dating down on the Lower East Side. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own some Bitcoin.

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Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. No, I'm not a robot. Yes, that's a chimney. Yeah, that's a taxi cab. There's a mountain.